thank you, Shane Claiborne

it's been on my to-read pile since December, and on my to-read list for months before that. yesterday, I finally started it--The Irresistible Revolution.

I'm one chapter in & I feel like someone has given voice to my soul--to what I see around me in American Christianity, to what I want my life & my generation to become. How refreshing. I'm not (yet) snarling like I was at Francis Chan about 'all heaven all the time', because Claiborne talks about a Christianity that "has as much to say about this world as it does about the next." Yes! At the end of every sentence I think, 'yes!'--even when he's making me blush by using terms such as 'spiritual masturbation' & by talking about Jesus's poop. What's great is that he has an extremely valid point in both these examples & in the many other instances where he says what people aren't used to hearing. It's what I've been waiting to hear.

at some moments I'm ready to pack my bags & move to Philly (well, maybe after Emory) & join the Simple Way. but when I stop to think about it realistically, I'm left with the burning question (the same question that's been burning in my soul for a year or so)--what does this look like in my life? How do I live like Jesus? How can I truly be a Christ-follower? What things have I not yet given up or sacrificed to walk in the Way?

And those are questions without easy answers. Which is what I believe Jesus meant when He said the path was narrow.

I'm thankful for a book that is going to challenge me to live radically because it resonates so deeply within me. I feel like Shane Claiborne is speaking what's been on my heart, but I've been too afraid to say. Or too afraid to live out. But he's just one author, one man living for Jesus. I can sit here & gab about how much his book resonates with me, but that's won't get me anywhere. I need to be empowered by the knowledge that there is a revolution happening in Christianity that I've been yearning to be a part of--and then take up my cross & join the mob.

I think I'm going to get a chance to live like that this summer. I'll be sleeping on the floor, eating the same meals every week, living in intentional community, giving every minute of my day to a greater mission, exhausting myself with living the Gospel. It's going to kick my butt, but I am so ready. (I say that now--please hold me to it come June or July).